Going Deep: The Future of Technology in the National Football League

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In the years ahead, the National Football League looks set to
dial up some new tech blitzes that will make the game fairer and
safer.

Among the technologies most likely to make it onto the field soon
are wireless sensors in the ball and in players' gear. These
technologies will resolve tough referee calls, aid in training
and improve safety. New helmet designs should also better protect
players from injury.

Off the field, advanced analytics that reveal the statistical
wisdom or folly of certain play-calls might already be subtly
changing the game of American football.

The NFL's
embrace of technology will continue to benefit the game and
its fans, Priya Narasimhan said. She is a professor of electrical
and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and heads
the Football Engineering Research Group, the only academic
program of its kind.

"Everything [the NFL does] is incredibly progressive without
spoiling the spontaneity and fun of the game," Narasimhan said,
"because you don’t want technology to get in the way."

A game of inches

Perhaps football's most nerve-racking, contentious plays are
short-yardage smashups of the defensive and offensive lines as
the ball carrier tries to eke out a first down or "cross the
plane" of the goal line for a touchdown.

These nail-biters usually require the referees (often with the
aid of
instant replay ) to try and divine just where in the heck the
ball is amid a seething pile of giant men.

The solution: a sensor in the ball that registers when it has
indeed crossed the first down or goal line.

At least two companies, Cairos Technologies in Germany and
YinzCam, a spinoff of Carnegie Mellon University's program, have
developed the necessary technology.

Cairos' method –
so far honed just for soccer – involves running a thin
electrical cable underneath the goal line and in the goal's frame
that generates a magnetic field. A lightweight sensor (or
sensors) in the ball detect when a certain amount of the ball has
passed this defined line.

In soccer, the whole 8.7-inch (22-centimeter) ball must cross the
line for a goal. So the sensor signals a score when it is 4.3
inches (11 centimeters) past the line, indicating that the entire
ball is in, explained Oliver Braun, the marketing and
communications director for Cairos.

In football, though, only a portion of the oblong ball needs to
cross the plane (or be out of bounds), and first down lines can
occur anywhere across the field of play.

So instead of wiring the whole field, YinzCam's approach places
base stations along the sidelines that pick up a signal beamed by
the football's sensor. A gyroscope in the ball's center also
transmits precise knowledge of the pigskin's orientation in 3-D
space in real-time.

Whether the long axis is nearly vertical in a place kick, or
horizontal during a bullet pass from a quarterback, or anywhere
in between (poking across the goal line), the referees will know.

The YinzCam sensor weighs just a half-ounce, lasts a half-hour
and can be recharged wirelessly via
inductive charging – the same technology that powers up an
electric toothbrush. Referees would swap the sensor-containing
footballs out for charged ones frequently. This shouldn't disrupt
the game because footballs get rotated in and out of the game now
anyway.

Although the NFL has not made any official statements on when
this tech will kickoff, Ray Anderson, NFL executive vice
president of operations, told TechNewsDaily: "It’s going to
happen. It’s in the works."

Sensors all over

This remote-sensing technology could revolutionize more than just
tough calls, said Narasimhan, who is founder and CEO of YinzCam.
The company has also created pressure sensors for placement in
players' gloves or pads. These "smart" gloves can detect how a
receiver catches a pass, for example, or how a running back
cradles the ball while dodging and dipping through gridiron
traffic.

These sensors could boost practice and game-day assessments,
Narasimhan said, at all levels of football, from high school on
through the pros.

In the receiver's case, "coaches say you are supposed to catch
the ball with your fingertips and not your thumbs," Narasimhan
said. "After dropping a pass, a guy will come back to the
sidelines and say, 'I swear it wasn’t my thumbs.'" With the
gloves, coaches, players, scouts and even parents of pee-wee
league players will have answers, and the receiver can work on
improving his mechanics if necessary.

Futuristic helmets

Yet another application of sensors is gauging the blows to
players' heads that might lead to concussions. Though mostly in
the research phase,
accelerometer-outfitted helmets already send hit intensity
data to sideline medical staff that can indicate the possibility
of a concussion.

Research has suggested that these re-engineered helmets, made by
Riddell, the official helmet supplier for the NFL, might cut down
on concussive events in high school by a third.

Individual susceptibly to concussions varies tremendously,
however, so a 100 percent accurate "concussion sensor" for now
remains science fiction.

The future of protective headgear in the NFL might lie with
unconventional, non-foam padding, such as the adaptive air cell
shock absorbers in the new X-1 helmet from Xenith. Air rushes in
and out of these cells that adapt to impacts; a harder hit
generates more air pressure, and therefore more stiffening to
secure a player's head.

Vin Ferrara, Xenith CEO, likened the effect to pushing hard on a
bike pump and getting more resistance than when softly depressing
it.

Only a few NFL players wore the X-1 helmet last year, but this
season at least 20 will, Ferrara said, and greater adoption is on
the horizon.

Zeus simulates hundreds of thousands of game outcomes based on
two play choices, for example, or can have two customizable teams
play a million simulated games in the span of a minute.

Insights gleaned from Zeus include that NFL coaches call plays
far too conservatively. For example, going for it on fourth down
and short often increases the chances of ultimately winning over
punting or settling for a field goal, and onside kicks should
also be attempted more often.

No team has used, or under current rules would be allowed, to use
Zeus in making snap game-day play calls. One team – Frigo cannot
say who – did experiment with Zeus off the field last season.

The pre-game hints and post-game hindsight the program offers
could usher in more aggressive strategies, Frigo said, if coaches
could stomach statistical reality.

"You're not going to see [Zeus or simulators like it] during the
game anytime soon," Frigo said. But Zeus-approved, bullish
play-calling is on the rise, Frigo said.

Gutsy calls last season by head coaches Sean Payton of the Super
Bowl champion New Orleans Saints and Bill Belichick of the New
England Patriots reveal the growing awareness that in the NFL,
fortune (and technology) often reward the bold.